KARACHI, July 17: The Pakistan People’s Party has expressed its serious concern over the rising graph of street crime and deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi, claiming that the city had become a heaven for underworld and criminal gangs due to the government’s failure in managing affairs of the province. It attributed the failure to the “internal squabbling suffered by the government.”

According to a fact-sheet released by the PPP media cell at Bilawal House, more than 300 cellphones are snatched at gunpoint every day, but due to lack of faith in police, more than 95 per cent of the victims of such robberies do not lodge an FIR. As such, a true picture of gravity of the situation does not appear in media.

Referring to a press report, the PPP fact-sheet pointed out that during the past six months, more than 56,000 cellphones had been taken away at gunpoint in the city. It maintained that in Gulshan and Saddar towns alone, 10,160 mobile phones were snatched during the past six months.

The PPP claimed that due to internal differences, the government was unable to establish its writ by taking punitive measures against those involved in such activities.

It also expressed concern over the growing incidents of robberies at various shopping malls in Karachi. The report noted that during the past six months, 47 people were killed and 118 injured in such robberies whereas about 50 cars and motorbikes were being snatched every day.

The report claimed that the rate of street crime was high in the areas where SHOs and other officials were relatives or friends of ministers.